


Click

by melonbutterfly



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Internal Monologue, M/M, Oblivious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-17
Updated: 2013-07-17
Packaged: 2017-12-20 11:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/886805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is all with the way after the fact epiphanies where Steve is concerned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Click

Danny finds out by accident. He's… okay, he's not a tactile guy, he knows he comes off like it but he isn't really, unless his baby girl is involved. But one day he's trying to convince Steve to back down, back off, that is enough of your crazy McGarrett shit look the perp is crying he's going to tell us anything we want to know, and he's touching Steve's arm – just his arm – but Steve backs down, and something makes click in Danny's head.

It's just a theory at first, a hypothesis, and a crappy one at that because one incident does not a reasonable conclusion make, and he can't say for sure if there is a correlation because he hasn't paid attention to the right things until this point. But he does, pay attention that is, from that incident on, and after two months he has pretty solid evidence. It doesn't work every time – though Danny's starting to figure out just how to manoeuvre this new(ly discovered?) quirk of Steve's and is getting better and better at it – but it works more often than not.

Touch makes Steve pliant.

Or, well, as pliant as Steve ever gets. It depends entirely on the situation of course; with people Steve considers as hostiles in the room it merely makes him more inclined to listen to Danny, back down, if only a little, but in less high-strung situations it works better. And the thing is… it makes Steve pay attention to Danny. Not that he hasn't before, but this is different.

So Danny does it more and more. He uses it consciously, and he doesn't really think much about it, but he touches Steve. Not all the time but whenever he really wants something; fingertips to the wrist, hand on the shoulder, arm, his back. And the more Steve listens to him – it's not obvious, okay, not noticeable to anybody but Danny who is with Steve pretty much all the time they're working – the more Danny touches him and it's a sort of spiral that gets more and more out of control until Danny finds himself touching Steve as a reward as well; a pat to the shoulder, his back, a hand to the back of Steve's neck, just little things, inconsequential things. He thinks nothing of it, really.

And then, one night there is this incident where Danny, more out of habit than anything else by this point, puts his hand on Steve's knee. They're out with Chin and Kono, drinks to celebrate the successful closing of a case, and Steve is making noises about heading out, so Danny puts a hand on Steve's knee and leans in a little and says some shit that amounts to "stay", and Steve's face turns towards him like a fucking flower to the sun and- he fucking stays.

Something makes click in Danny's head again and he thinks, oh fuck.

With great power comes great responsibility, he thinks a little later, somewhat hysterically probably. He's at home and in bed and can't fucking sleep because finally he has the time and the wherewithal to fucking think about what he's done, about what it means. And he feels like shit because he's been treating Steve like- like a fucking robot, and okay sometimes he calls him that but he doesn't mean it, he fucking knows just how much a robot Steve is not. Yet here he's been manipulating him like a conman without even really thinking about it.

He's thinking about it now. He thinks about it for days, actually, mouth running off on autopilot whenever somebody eyes him in that way that means they've noticed that he isn't as vocal as usual, and he thinks about how he never thought about why. Why does it work? Why does Steve…

Steve trusts him, he knows that, and the irony of that doesn't escape him now, how little he deserves it for having done what he did. And Steve... thinking about it, it's really obvious.

Nobody really touches Steve. Who would? Danny is the closest person he has. Not really the only one, there is the team and a couple of other buddies Steve spends time with, but Danny is so far ahead of them in how much time he spends with Steve it's not even funny anymore. And Steve has this unapproachability to him – he can turn it off, make it seem different when he needs to but Steve, the real Steve, he has his personal space and most people almost instinctively respect it. Danny very much did not. Does not. Never has.

Steve never said a word about it. He never reacted negatively, never once pulled away, told Danny to stop in action if not in words. There are so many implications to that and it makes Danny feel even worse, what he must have made Steve think, what conclusions he made Steve draw that-

"Okay, that's enough," Steve says firmly on day three after Danny's revelation as to how shitty a friend- how shitty a human being he's been. "What's up?"

"What's up?" Danny repeats, off to deflect because he can never, ever say a word about this because if Steve hasn't realised what Danny's done there might still be something salvageable out of this whole mess. "What do you mean, what's up? What, are you a teenager now? Can you not ask a normal question like a normal grown-up person anymore? What's up? What should be up, Steve? I'm fine." And it's weak, because if Danny has an A-game he is very far off it right now.

Of course Steve completely ignores anything he's just said. "You have a face," he says instead, earnestly, and oh, Danny has not, _Steve_ is the one with the faces. "I know you've been brooding, Danno. So, what's up?" And then he-

Steve puts his hand on Danny. The back of his neck, the way Danny has done to him a couple of times and he did not realise just how intimate it is, how close it brings them, and it makes click in his head again and he thinks _oh_ and _Jesus fuck how stupid can a person-_ and kisses Steve.

The noise Steve makes should be criminal, or maybe the way he moves into Danny's body should be like this is all he's been waiting for, a signal, and what is this personal space Danny was thinking of earlier? It has completely vacated the premises because Steve is all up against Danny's body, mouth hot and eager against him, hands under- wow, how did that happen, talk about stealth because Danny has no memory of when his shirt buttons were opened but suddenly they are very much open and those are Steve's hands on his skin.

"Fucking finally-" Steve gasps, mouth wet and red when he pulls back to give them just enough space to breathe. His eyes are dark and intent, bedroom eyes, his hands on Danny's skin, under his shirt, hips pressed together in a way that leaves very little to the imagination as to just how involved either of them is. "I thought you were- wasn't sure-"

"Shut up," Danny growls and then makes sure Steve obeys by preventing him from speaking again with his mouth. The fall on the sofa, and didn't this start out in the kitchen? But it doesn't matter because now they're horizontal, which means they can get even closer, legs tangling and Danny can't- he can't-

So fucking stupid, he thinks when he lies in bed later. And really, he has to admit, so damn typical for them as well; if he thinks about it, everything between them has crept up on them, happened before Danny even knew it was. Becoming partners, becoming best friends, becoming family – all of these things Danny only realised far after the fact, like his being aware of his own life is just an afterthought. Really, it shouldn't be so surprising that he unconsciously seduced Steve without even knowing he wanted to, much less that he was doing it.

"D'nny," Steve growls into the pillow, somehow managing to sound menacing even as he sleepily slurs his syllables, "fuckin' sleep."

"God, McGarrett, I'd love to, but you're like a chatty Cathy all of a sudden, who would'a thunk," Danny returns and buries his face in the space between Steve's shoulder and the pillow. Steve grumbles and paws at him clumsily, giving whatever he meant to do up halfway in or possibly actually falling asleep during; his hand drops, heavy and graceless, on Danny's neck and stays there, lulling him to sleep. His last thought is that maybe Steve isn't the only one who turns pliant with touch.


End file.
